The Man in the White Suit
by xxmagex
Summary: The Planetary Corporation keeps the world safe and strange. It has a new employee, an one-eyed former carpenter from California
1. Chapter 1

Email: XxMageX  
Disclaimer: The Buffy the Vampire Slayers are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar, Kuzui, WB and UPI. The comic Planetary is the property of Wildstorm and Warrne copyright infringement is intended and not one red cent is being earned from this story  
Ratin"PG  
Warnings: none, really  
Main characters: Xander, Andrew, OC  
Setting: Takes place after season 5 of Angel  
Classification: Angst, Crossover  
Author's Notes: Thanks to Starway Man for betaing this story.

**The man in the White Suit**  
**Chapter One**

Xander was angry.

Well actually he was 100% full bore pissed off.

And Andrew Wells could tell this as he hurried to try to catch up to the former carpenter.

Andrew had no doubt both Buffy and Giles did regret what both had blurted out within minutes of each. Well, given the stress of the moment it was understandable their self-control would slip; after all it was the annual end of the world event for the Scoobies.

Giles, once he'd realized what he implied by his statement had started stammering and trying to explain and apologize. Xander had waved him off, things to do after all.

Buffy had slipped up a few minutes later when everyone was getting ready to go save the world. As soon as she had said it, her hand had gone to her mouth, seemingly trying to force the words back in.

But coming so soon after Giles slip of the tongue, well - Xander had not been in the best mood. The words had gotten to him.

But only Andrew knew how much Xander clearly was seething over them.

Seething to the point where he didn't even want to talk to about what had happened. Both of Buffy and Giles had tried to, of course, but since they had to run off and prevent the apocalypse again Buffy had just ended up saying they would talk when she got back.

It looked as if Xander didn't want to take up Buffy on her invitation to talk though, as he stalked through the corridors of the London headquarters of the new Watchers Council.

"Xander, nervous energy? I know I'm the same way, can't sit still until I know the world is safe..." Andrew started to babble.

Xander looked at Andrew behind him, when the former member of the trio spoke up. His silence was more ominous than any shout or rant could ever have been.

Andrew glanced nervously at the one-eyed man, when there wasn't an answer to his question. "Xander..."

"Not now Andrew" Xander hissed in fury.

"Okay, um. Yeah. I'm sure you're upset Xander, m-maybe a nice cup of tea?" Andrew managed to stammer out.

Again Xander didn't answer as they came to some stairs and the older male started walking down them. "Xander where are you going?" Andrew asked as he followed his target.

"Out." was the single word response from the man in question.

"Uh, I don't think that's such a good idea..." Andrew started to say

"I don't give a rat's ass." Xander tossed over his shoulder.

"Xander, look - I know you're mad. But, uh, you really need to come back upstairs with me and calm down, I mean, Buffy wants to talk to you when she gets back- ."

"Too bad for her it ain't going to happen." Xander shifted the coat he was carrying from his left to his right hand. They reached the bottom of the stairs and walked out into the lobby of the Council headquarters. The doors to the street were on the other side.

Xander started across the lobby, with Andrew in tow. Then he noticed his unwelcome shadow was still there "Where do you think you're going?"

Andrew inwardly cringed as the teenage girl sitting at the reception desk spoke up as Xander approached her. "Mr Harris."

'It would have to be Chantelle' he thought. She had been one of the slayers discovered after Willow had done the awakening spell. She hadn't been in Sunnydale and hadn't really encountered a big bad yet.

In other words, she really wasn't ready for field work yet. The French girl had the technique down, no doubt about that. But the problem was her atittude.

Chantelle had completely bought into the whole idea that it was power that truly mattered in this world. An unfortunate echo of Buffy's big 'who's got the power' trip during 2002 and 2003. Buffy had seen her error and was trying to change her ways, not Chantelle .The only people she really listened to were the other slayers.

Well really only Buffy and Kennedy.

She treated everyone else like dirt. Including Xander as was clear from the sneer on her face as she looked at the Scooby. "Mr. Harris, where do you think you're going?"

"Out." Xander said without really slowing his pace.

"No you're not." Chantelle said, crossing her arms as she said so. "Buffy said you weren't to leave until she got back."

"Really. Too bad for you and her then that I'm leaving now." Xander growled in response.

He stopped when Chantelle moved in front of him, between him and the door. She didn't move as fast as a Slayer normally would, her busted knee was clearly slowing her down.

"No you're not." Chantelle said again. "Buffy said you staying, so you stay."

"Why should I stay?" Xander asked. "No, lemme rephrase that. Why does Buffy want me to stay?"

Andrew started to answer, but Chantelle beat him to the punch. "Beause she doesn't want you in the way." The Slayer said with a smirk.

"NO!" Andrew shouted out. Why did she have to use that phrase? She did it intentionally, she so wants to kick his ass. Engine Room to Captain Picard! We have a warp core breach!. "No, you're wrong. That's not it-."

"So says the other useless person in the room." Chantelle said, without even looking at Andrew. "Look Mr. Harris, just turn around and go back upstairs and wait for the important people to return - like a good little zeppo."

Xander shuffled his feet for a second. The Zeppo crack had momentarily thrown him- where could Chantelle had heard that? Then he figured it didn't really matter. Cordelia Chase's ghost no longer held any power over him, even though he'd privately grieved for her loss at the funeral a few months ago. "Okay, here hold my coat."

With a sudden movement of his arm, he tossed the coat he had been carrying into Chantelle's face. She tried to remove the garment to get a clear view of what was happening; but before she could, Xander punched her in the gut.

It didn't really hurt the slayer, after all; Supergirl versus ordinary human? Didn't take a rocket scientist to do the math. It just startled Chantelle and allowed Xander to grab her left arm and fling her into Andrew who was standing behind him

As he did so, he grabbed the coat he had thrown. But not before he nimbly kicked the French girl right where it hurt the most. The slayer and Andrew crashed to the floor, the chosen one screaming as she did from the intolerable pain from her knee.

Instantly, Xander hurried to the doors. Both Andrew and Chantelle tried to get up, but they tripped each other and both fell back down to the ground.

Chantelle started cursing in French, for someone from a cultured family, she knew an awful lot of curse words. Or so Andrew thought as he tried to get up again, only to be pushed down by Chantelle as she jumped up. "Out of my way!"

She ran to the door screaming and hobbling as she did. "Harris! Get your derriere back here!"

Andrew clambered up and followed Chantelle to the street. The geek found her standing several feet from the doors, looking up and down the street with a look of fury in her face. "Where did he go?" she muttered.

Andrew looked around at the people walking up and down the street, he didn't see Xander anywhere either.

********

Xander leaned back in the subway seat as he traveled the London underground.

Chantelle, although she had the strength and reflexes, clearly did not have the instincts of a Slayer. He made a note to himself to tell someone to do something about that, if he ever got the chance.

Xander, figured that Chantelle hadn't clocked enough field time, otherwise she would have realized that it was easy to double back on oneself. Not once had she thought that Xander had done anything but run away from the council headquarters.

It had simply never occurred to her or Andrew to look at one of the other entrances to the headquarters.

Xander had simply waited until they had gone back into the headquarters and then simply walked down the street to the nearest underground station.

'Well now.' Xander thought to himself. The former Sunnydalian hadn't really expected to be following up on the offer he'd recently gotten while working for the council.

THEY had come to him in Africa, after an encounter with something called the Esin-Ka. It was a giant snake that walked. At first, he had thought it was some kind of demon. It wasn't, but neither had it been easy surviving his encounter with it.

The organization had shown up right afterwards. They knew about him and made him an offer. One he had been hard pressed to refuse.

A million dollars a year for the rest of his life if he worked for them, no matter how long he worked for them. They would also hide him and give him a new start, if that was his desire.

All they'd wanted in return was him to work for them, and only for them. That had been the only stipulation; no divided loyalties. They'd wanted his services pretty badly too. Xander had made a quip about how hard it must be to find a carpenter these days. They had just smirked and explained who they were.

They collected information, the stuff that made the world strange.

"What we really do, is act as a databank of sorts. And we keep the world strange because that's the way it's supposed to be. Plus we save the people in it." That had been how it was phrased to Xander.

"But, I already do that." Xander had replied. Then he had politely refused the offer; after all the man did work for people saving the world, he didn't need a new start.

But now... Harris realized that he had been oh-so-wrong.

Xander hadn't thought he needed a new start. He knew his life here had some bumps to it, after all- Africa wasn't for the faint of heart. But he'd thought he was needed. What with the way the Council still had so damned few field watchers in the world, it was like a given.

Well anyway, the summons back to London and the current end of the world situation came almost immediately afterwards. So they had simply given him their card and said to drop by if he changed his mind.

The train came to a stop and a musing Xander made his way into the station and up onto the street.

He had gotten his wakeup call. And maybe he did need a new start, at that.

The other would miss him, at first. However as soon as another end of the world crisis arose they would get distracted.

This seemed the best way for them to figure out what was happening in his life. Namely that he'd had a bellyful upon hearing what they thought of him.

He quickly made his way down the street. He wasn't really wasn't worried that much about the Scoobies coming for him, but Chantelle was a different matter.

Because he had hurt her pride, far more than he had hurt her body. She wasn't the most rational Slayer out there and there was no telling how she would react. Xander figured the sooner he got to where he was going, the better.

He reached the building, the card had five offices listed on it; London New York, Los Angeles, Johannesburg and Cairo. They had said to drop in at any of the offices.

So he made his way to the sixth story of the building. The office looked to be smaller than he expected. Shrugging to himself, Xander opened the door and entered.

The receptionist looked up from the simple desk she was sitting behind. "May I help you?"

Xander raised an eyebrow and crossed his personal Rubicon. "Yes, I'm Xander Harris, I was..."

The receptionist instantly smiled and interrupted. "Oh yes, of course! Mr Harris, we were told you might come here. Please have a seat and someone will be with you in a minute." Behind her the company logo was painted on the wall, a picture of the earth with the word 'Planetary' painted above it curving over the planet.

Xander sat down, as his life began moving in a totally new direction.. 'I wonder if I'll have to wear a white suit.'

-fin for now-


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: **The Man In The White Suit 2

**Author:** MPrattky

**E-mail:** XxMageX 

**Disclaimer:** The Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar, Kuzui, WB and UPN. The comic Planetary is the property of Wildstorm and Warren Ellis/John Cassaday. No copyright infringement is intended, and not one red cent is being earned from this story.

**Rating: **PG

**Warnings: **None really

**Setting: **Takes place after Angel season 5, and almost right after the previous story in this series.

**Classification:** Angst, Crossover

**Author's Notes:** This is a sequel to "The Man In The White Suit", and thanks to Starway Man for beta'ing this.

**Summary: **Xander starts his new job after leaving the Watchers Council behind.

**Watchers Council HQ, London, England. May, 2004**

Willow Rosenberg walked down the hallway in a foul mood, as she went past the door that led to Giles' office. She had been in this mood for the past couple of days. She scowled as she spotted the half-open door several meters down the hallway. She instantly stormed in, pushing the door all the way open.

"Get out, you, you, you damn vulture! This office is not available for you to…" She trailed off as she saw who was sitting at the desk next to the window. "Buffy?"

"You know, this was going to be his office," Buffy Summers said sadly, looking out the window over the London cityscape. "It's ridiculous, but I felt better just…"

Willow advanced into the office. "I know, Buff, me too. That's why I came in like gangbusters that way; I thought someone was trying to poach on Xander's territory." Then Willow fully processed what Buffy had said. "Hey! Buffy, come on, it's going to be his office when he comes back." The redhead moved up next to her best friend.

{ Really? Then why do I have the feeling it'll be a cold day in Hell now before that ever happens? } "I don't think so, Will. Xander...he, he didn't even wait around for me to apologize for my boneheaded remark a few days ago. I'm thinkin', what I said then might just have been the final straw and the camel's back and all that. The way Xander left and, well, Chantelle wasn't the friendliest Slayer around when he left..."

"Where is Chantelle, anyway? I've not seen her all day," Willow asked.

"She's undergoing some additional training with Faith," Buffy explained emotionlessly.

Willow managed to crack a smile at that. "The same kind of training Kennedy was doing with Chantelle yesterday, huh?"

Buffy nodded. "Oh yeah. From what I saw, Faith has a lot of anger to work out of her system lately. And when she's done, well, I've got a whole lot of anger of my own. I mean, I gave her one little thing to do, just one – and Chantelle failed in her assignment. And to think she was actually complaining about how humiliating it was that a 'normal slob' got the drop on her!"

Willow's face showed the anger that Chantelle's attitude had caused in her and all the original Scoobies ever since a few days ago. The French girl had been very surprised by all the unexpected animosity at first, and so Chantelle had been not completely forthcoming as to what had led up to the scuffle she and Xander had had in the lobby.

But Andrew and the surveillance tapes had soon filled in the blanks, and so her superiors were now not pleased with her at all.

"Well, that bitchy shrew does need to improve her social skills and sensitivity a lot. Maybe a week or so as a frog would help," Miss Rosenberg suggested.

Buffy looked over at her redheaded friend. "You really are pulling out the big guns, aren't you? Also, turning the French girl into a frog? Since when did you start watching Fox News?"

Willow frowned at that. "I hadn't thought of the French connection, just that she was a stuck-up b-i-t-c-h."

Buffy resumed looking out the window. "Was I ever like that, Will?"

Willow was shocked to hear that question. "What? No, Buff, you were never like that!" she exclaimed.

"Willow," Buffy said with a pointed look. Recalling a humiliating mating dance at the Bronze that had taken place nearly seven years ago, she added, "September 2nd, 1997."

Willow's memory instantly made the connection, and the witch had to look aside. "Well, uh, you were young then. And, and kinda traumatized. And all girls are a little bitchy at that age, and-and maybe I should just shut up now?"

Buffy looked over at Willow and smiled. "Thanks for trying to spare my feelings." The blonde-haired Slayer went back to looking at midday London. After a few moments, though, she spoke up again.

"Whatever the reason or excuse, the fact is that we screwed up. No, *I* screwed up. Badly. And I don't know how to make it up to him, Will. I just...if he had just waited, I was going to tell him about all this." Buffy waved right hand in the air, referring to the office they were occupying. "The next day, hell; I'd decided to tell him as soon as we got back. Not as a bribe, but as something to show how we all really feel about Xander. How much we trust and rely on him. But now he thinks that we..."

Buffy didn't manage to finish her statement, as the door was pushed open and Dawn stuck her head in.

"Buffy, oh good Willow, I was looking for you too. Come on, Andrew's found something."

Buffy and Willow followed Dawn into an executive office filled with monitors. Sitting in front of the screens was Andrew Wells, with Giles off to the side.

"Okay, what have you got?" Buffy asked, getting straight down to business.

Andrew turned around. "Ah, Buffy, Willow, did you know that London has cameras on the streets?"

"Yeah, it's like they think I'm going to shoplift a car or something. Sometimes, I feel like I'm in a giant Gap store," Buffy commented.

Andrew nodded. "Right, but what you may not know is that per capita, London has the most cameras in the world when it comes to public surveillance. It, it's impossible to walk down some streets and not be caught on camera. Very Big Brother-ish, if you ask me. In fact, I think…"

"Andrew," Giles gently reproached the former member of the Trio.

Andrew blinked his eyes. "Oh, right. Well, we were able to get the footage from the cameras around headquarters for the time of Xander leaving." He leaned over and typed a few strokes on a keyboard, then footage of Xander walking down the street showed on the screen. "We can track him from going out the front door, and playing the trick he did on Chantelle. After she runs back in, he walks down the street to this underground tube station."

Some more tapping of the keyboard led to footage within the railway station and of Xander getting on a train. "We know which train he got on, so using that and the schedule, we tracked him using the cameras at each station along the path the train took, to figure out where he got off." 

Several scenes of different stations flashed on the screen. "He rode for a while, finally getting off the train here." Andrew pointed at the screen, as Xander exited the train and walked out of the station. The scene then shifted to the former Scooby walking down a new street.

"And then we have Xander here entering this office building here," Andrew narrated, as Harris walked into an older grey brick building.

"So where did he go from there?" Willow asked.

"Well, um, that's the thing. We've reviewed every surveillance tape covering the outside of that building from the, uh, the moment Xander went in. As far as we know, h-he's not come out," Giles explained.

"Xander's probably holed up in one of the offices, bitching about us to whoever he knows in there. Not that you could blame him for it. All right, we know where he is. So let's go get him," Buffy said firmly as she strode from the room.

The Scoobies gathered in the lobby of the building which was the London HQ of 'Planetary'.

Planetary was an organization whose members billed themselves as "archaeologists of the impossible", tracking down the world's secret history. Funded by someone rich, who could have been anybody from Bill Gates to Adolf Hitler, its field team consisted of three superhumans: Jakita Wagner, strong, fast and nearly invulnerable; the Drummer or Drums, who could detect and manipulate nearby information streams, most commonly to manipulate computers and other electronics; and Elijah Snow, who could deep-freeze nearby substances at will.

And the newest recruit of course, the one and only Alexander Lavelle Harris. The one who saw everything.

"Any luck?" Buffy asked the others, only to be rewarded by shaking heads all around.

"No, no one recognized the picture or has even heard of Xander Harris," Dawn said dejectedly. "Or at least, that's their story, and they're sticking to it!"

"What about the basement?" Buffy asked, thinking that Xander might have slipped out that way.

Faith shook her head. "Sorry B, but Giles and I went down there and checked it out. No entrance to the sewers, or anything. Unless Boy Toy mojo'ed himself into a rat or something, he didn't get out that way."

"Could he have flown off somewhere?"

Dawn answered that one. "Only if he had wings. There's no place for a helicopter to land on the roof."

Buffy frowned, a defeated look on her face. "Well, then, he's got to be here somewhere. Willow, can you do a tracking spell?"

"I guess," she replied hesitantly. "I'm gonna need something of his, though – blood, hair, something personal."

"But we don't have anything like that here, do we?" Dawn asked.

An argument quickly started on which would be the best way to proceed, to stay here or to go back to the Council HQ. And it would be quite a while before the Scoobies realized that Giles should have been the one to go to the sixth floor.

Xander Harris was thinking about the past. The good times and bad. He thought about all the women he'd hung out with, and the ones he'd lost over the years.

Anya. Tara. Joyce. Cordelia. Ms. Calendar. Just to name a few.

Finally, though, Xander realized that he had truly left all that behind, and there was no point thinking about them anymore. This was his new start, and as such he had something to say to his new colleague.

"I am not wearing a white suit."

Jakita Wagner, with a hand on her left hip, looked at Xander for a second. "Well, I'll let you explain that to Elijah. He's very fond of white suits. Me, I'm just happy that you're not wearing a Hawaiian shirt."

"Hey," Xander bristled in response. "There was a time when I would have resented that."

"But thankfully for us, that time is now long in the past," Jakita said with a smirk. "Come on, you're wanted downstairs." She motioned to the elevator leading out of the penthouse suite.

Xander followed her into the elevator. "So, what exactly do you do around here?"

She raised an eyebrow and looked at Xander. "Well, for now it looks like I get flirted with by the new guy."

"Well, I'm new around here and, and I..." Xander stammered for a second, as his brain caught up with his mouth.

"You have a thing for strong women," Jakita finished for him.

Xander blushed, reminded of his previous line of thought. "No…okay, yeah. Not that you're not strong, very strong. I mean you drop-kicked that rhino across the Grand Canyon, and if that's not serious strength I don't know what is..."

Jakita smiled. "You've been talking to Drums." The elevator door opened and Jakita walked out. "Come on, no need to be embarrassed." She looked back with a grin. "Besides, you're cute when you're flustered." She continued down the hallway as Xander hurried after her.

Elijah Snow glanced up as Xander and Jakita entered the conference room. "I thought you were getting a white suit," he said with a frown, upon eyeing Xander's wardrobe.

Xander shrugged. "I had to be me," he explained simply.

Snow rolled his eyes. "You're spending way too much time with Drums, I had such high hopes for you. Never mind. We'll get you your suit later." He turned to the fourth person in the room, a long-haired man holding a pair of drumsticks, who was drumming on the table in front of him. "Go ahead."

Drums nodded and pointed at a screen that came down from the ceiling, as the lights dimmed. "A research ship from the National Oceanic Society has had sporadic sonar contact lately with an unknown object. They've not been able to run it down, and they didn't want to divert course that much from their mission to find out more," Drums announced, as a chart with a series of Xs on it appeared on the screen.

"What's their mission?" Jakita asked.

"Studying the influence of surface maritime traffic on the mating habits of aquatic life," Drums answered as if reading off a press release.

Xander snorted. "You mean, they're a bunch of peeping toms when it comes to fish."

Drums nodded. "Yep, your tax dollars at work. Anyway, they passed on word to the authorities. The Coast Guard got sent out to see what they could find. They got one or two hits, but when they looked further nothing was there."

"And this gets our interest, how?" Snow asked.

Drums pointed at the screen "If you take a look at the contacts and draw a line straight back to the first one and then factor in the currents of the North Atlantic, you have a straight line back to Devil's Cavern." Both Snow and Jakita nodded at that.

Xander popped his hand up. "For the newbie who slept through geography in high school, among other things, just what is Devil's Cavern?"

"Site of the final battle between American Shield and Swatiska," Snow answered.

"Huh?" Xander said.

"Back in World War Two, American Shield was a super-soldier created by the U.S. Army. He had super-speed, strength, better than average healing. Some kind of serum they whipped up. Anyway, they used him for secret missions. The Germans had their own version, Swastika. The two of them had a nasty rivalry going for about three years. Back in '45 as the Germans were losing, word reached our high command that the Nazis had a submarine headed to New York with some kind of secret weapon. With the help of the Norwegian resistance, American Shield was able to get aboard that U-boat. The Army got a radio broadcast saying that Swastika was also onboard and that American Shield was going to try and blow up the boat. A couple of hours later, there was a massive explosion. No trace of the sub or survivors was ever found," Drums explained.

"Until now, why now?" Jakita asked.

"Global warming. Recently, some of the ice shelf near Devil's Cavern broke off and started melting. Maybe the wreck was frozen, but is now floating back towards its target," Drum speculated.

"With whatever bomb it had on it," Snow observed. "Did they ever figure out what kind of weapon it was?"

Drums shook his head. "No, military intelligence after the war questioned all the German scientists it could. But none of them knew a thing. Swastika himself developed the weapon, he had been a genius even before the Nazis ramped up his body. Best guess was, he had come up with some kind of early A-bomb."

"And it's floating towards New York," Jakita said.

"If it goes off, Bush will no doubt grab the opportunity to retaliate, flatten a few countries on his shit list," Drums said.

"That would be bad," Xander said, contemplating the various scenarios flitting through his mind.

"Yes, and as much as the French are annoying, I don't think nuking them will help much," Snow said. "All right. We'll have to look into this." 

"You guys have a submarine," Xander commented in a tone clearly showing wonder and amazement.

"Like I said back at Halifax, yes we do; Planetary doesn't stint when it comes to resources," Snow answered. "You'd think though that with everything you've seen, being on a submarine wouldn't actually be that big a deal."

"Hey, I've never been on a submarine before," Xander answered. "It just feels good, that's all. Exciting."

"And here you were the one who was almost turned into a sea monster," Drums commented.

"Is there anything you don't know?" Xander asked of his new friend.

"Yes, when to shut up," Snow said. "Anything yet?" He leaned down to look over Jakita's shoulder.

"I've got a contact, bearing range about three hundred yards to port," Wagner answered. "I'm headed there right now. We should be able to get a picture before too long."

"Drums?" Snow asked.

Drums looked at the instrument panels. "Confusing. I'm getting blips of...something."

"Something? That all you've got?" Snow clearly wanted more.

"I can't explain. Sometimes it's full energy as if it's fully functioning and manned. Other times it's like it's a floating wreck, then half power and emergency power."

"Why do I have the funny feeling that someone might actually be alive over there, even though it's been nearly sixty years?" Xander commented, staring at the screen as his colleagues stared at him in consternation.

"Here we go," Jakita said and pointed at the viewscreen in front of them.

The screen flickered for a second or two, until an image of a large submarine appeared. There was a greenish tint to it. Near the back of the submarine, a huge gash was present

"Looks like American Shield was able to do the explosion thing after all," Jakita said.

Snow was frowning. "Doesn't make sense; a hole that big should stop the boat from floating. It shouldn't be there, it ought to be a wreck at the bottom on the sea."

"And yet, here it floats in front of us, headed towards the Big Apple. Only one way to find out what's going on," Jakita smiled.

"Wait a minute. We're going over there?" Xander asked, his voice clearly approaching panic. "Can't we send over a robot or something first?"

Snow shook his head. "No, robots are too quirky. They get funny ideas in their heads and think they should be the masters. Next thing you know, you're in a bad science fiction movie. Besides, sometimes, seeing things with your own two eyes is better."

"Oh my God, what did I sign up for with you people?" the one-eyed man asked fearfully, touching his eye patch.

Snow smiled. "Come on."

Xander dropped from the hatch connecting the U-boat to the Planetary submarine. The interior of the U-boat was dark, only illuminated by emergency lights along the corridor. Next to him, Jakita shone a flashlight down the corridor.

Behind Xander, Drums dropped down, cursing as he hit the floor. "We couldn't dock in such a way as to walk over?"

"If you want to redesign these boats in order to do that, go right ahead," Snow replied. "Got anything yet?"

Drums grunted. He knew he wasn't going to get much sympathy from his boss. "Confusing like before, it's on emergency power. Beyond that…" Drums trailed off.

"Then we have to take a look for ourselves," Snow said in a grumpy voice. "Let's go."

"Guys? I'm getting a really bad feeling about this," Xander said, his good eye twitching. Much like it had when he had lost his virginity to Faith, all those years ago. "Kinda like I did in a certain vineyard last year. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but let's keep a sharp eye out anyway, okay?"

The others nodded. Such a warning was one of the reasons the newest member of Planetary was here, after all. The quartet made its way through the corridors with Jakita in the lead and Xander bringing up the rear. Every once in a while, they passed the mummified remains of the crew.

They passed two bodies, each holding a submachine gun in their withered hands. Suddenly, the lights in the corridor flared on and the entire corridor was bathed in the harsh illumination of a functional wartime Nazi submarine.

"Halt! Handehoch!" Xander swiveled around, and saw that where there had been two bodies there were now two Nazis aiming submachine guns at the group. "Schnell, Amerikaner!"

"Guys, run!" Harris shouted.

The four Planetary operatives hurried through the nearby hatch as gunshots rang out behind them. It was a miracle, but none of them were actually hit.

"Close the hatch, ricochets!" Snow shouted. Xander slammed the hatchway shut as he heard pings off the hatch.

"Okay, this is new. 'Cause they were skeletons just a few seconds ago," Xander exclaimed

"Well, they're not anymore. So move your ass!" Snow shouted as the hatch swung open and the barrel of a submachine gun poked through.

"You guys go on, I'll see to the Fritz's here," Jakita moved past and grabbed the barrel. She pulled the weapon through. The German holding the gun tumbled through as well and looked very surprised. His face whitened as Jakita pulled the weapon into two pieces.

"Superior German workmanship my ass," she said with a smile on her face. Suddenly the lights flickered off again, and Wagner was looking down at a mummified body. "What the hell?"

"No time!" Snow yelled. "Come on!" Nearby, Drums was holding his forehead cursing.

"What's wrong?" Jakita asked as she and Xander helped him down the corridor.

"Information overload, everything changed. Like it was all shook up then put back in the original container. Kind of like drinking the new Coke, after being used to original Coke," Drums replied.

They passed several mummified bodies, more than a few of them armed. "There was a fight going on somewhere ahead. They were headed towards it," Snow observed.

"And we're headed towards it too?" Xander asked.

The lights flickered on again and suddenly the U-boat was once more humming with activity. Drums grabbed his forehead. "Shit, come on!" he cursed in frustration.

"We got more Nazis coming!" Xander shouted, looking behind the group.

"Keep going!" Snow said. He stepped by Xander and slammed the hatch shut, He placed his hand against it, and ice formed around the hatchway. "I figure we'll find out what's going on up ahead." From the other side of the hatchway, shouting in German and various banging noises could be heard.

The Planetary quartet hurried down the corridor towards the noise. As they got to the hatch, Drums rubbed his forehead. "Just up ahead, it's the source."

Jakita got to the hatch first and pushed it open. "Damn," she muttered in dismay.

"Amen to that," Xander echoed.

The chamber they had just entered was inexplicably large, larger than would have seemed possible on a submarine. There was a balcony, which Xander and the others had just stepped onto. In the middle of the chamber was a pale green column of light that reached all the way to the ceiling. Around it were white flashes.

However, what really got Xander's attention was the tall blonde man in a Nazi uniform with a huge swatiska on his chest on the floor of the chamber below, who was aiming a sub machinegun at him.

"American swine, I don't care how many of you there are. For The Fatherland!" He pulled the trigger.

Xander was surprised that instead of having bullets tear into his flesh, he heard the bullets pinging off a shield being held in front of him.

"Get down!" The shield was being held by an unshaven eye patch man with a cigar stuck in his mouth. "I don't feel like writing a letter home to your mom." Xander quickly followed the instructions as did the others from Planetary.

Snow spoke up, as he finished icing up the hatch leading into the chamber. "American Shield?"

"Yeah!" was the shouted reply as he crouched behind the shield. "Who the hell are you guys?"

"We're here to help. The Navy picked up your presence, and we got word of it," Snow explained. "What the hell is that thing?" He nodded at the center of the room.

"Well, you see that overgrown Hitler Youth down there, he's called Swastika. He's Adolf golden boy with an oversized brain. He's trying to monkey around with something called chronos particles, made some kind of bomb out of them."

"A temporal bomb?" Drums said as they continued ducking from the bullets Swastika was shooting towards them.

American Shield nodded. "Yeah, Fritz called it that."

"That explains everything."

Xander looked at Drums in exasperation. "Well, maybe for those of you who are addled minded, how about for those of us who are thinking straight?"

Snow smiled. "I knew I would like you. How about it, Drums, care to explain?"

Drums started rubbing his forehead again. "Well, chronos particles are what you get when time progresses. The theory is that if you can find a way to disrupt their normal progression you can freeze or revert time."

"Which explains the way things keep shifting from shooting Nazis to mummified Nazis," Jakita said.

"The explosion," Snow said as they all heard a click. They peered over the railing and saw Swastika reloading his submachine gun.

"Come on!" American Shield shouted as he vaulted over the balcony railing, Jakita close behind him.

"Wait!" Xander shouted. He hurried over to the railing and looked over. He was surprised to see American Shield falling down, followed closely by Jakita, and he was protecting them both with his shield. Swastika was blasting away and the bullets were pinging off the shield. The two hit the floor with a thud.

"Give it up, Nazi. You're not getting to New York City!" American Shield shouted out. He and Jakita rolled in opposite directions, forcing the German to look back and forth.

"How did he do that?" Xander asked in wonder.

"You'd be surprised. Come on, let's get down there!" Snow said, as he walked over to the ladder leading down to the lower level. Drums and Xander followed him.

"Hey, I stopped being amazed a long time ago," Drums said, as he followed Xander and Snow down. When they got to the bottom, they ducked as more bullets bounced on the wall behind them. "Well, someone has to take his big gun away."

"Working on it!" Jakita shouted as she did a flying kick towards the German. He was knocked by back the impact. As he hit the floor, the submachine gun skittered away from him. Swastika didn't stay down long, though. He jumped up and punched Jakita as she was getting up.

"You can not stop me!" He screamed.

"Hey Heinz, didn't your momma teach you not to hit a lady?" Suddenly, American Shield was in front of Swastika landing a solid punch on his jaw.

The lights flickered for a second, and suddenly the Planetary team was in a darkened chamber and there were two mummified corpses with them. Xander looked around. "Okay, this is getting really freaky."

Drums was still gripping his forehead. "Also painful, this is worse than any hangover and I didn't even have a good time."

"How do we stop it?" Snow asked. 

Drums shook his head. "I don't know. The temporal shifting is confusing, and I don't know what's the right combination to make it stop, one way or the other."

Jakita stood up and brushed off the dust from her jumpsuit. "I don't get it, we saw the hole. This sub should on the bottom of the ocean. But, this funny light show seems to keep it floating."

Snow was looking at where the column of light had been. "They activated the temporal bomb. The theory is that the bomb was designed to stop time in a specific locale, kind of in a loop of some kind. History keeps repeating itself, unless something intervenes."

"Like we did, we got on the sub and started changing things," Jakita observed. "Also, Shield was here, he blew his bomb. That's why the Nazi blew his bomb early."

"Why did he do that?" Xander asked.

"To stop time," Snow said. "He figured it would stop Shield from stopping him, at least long enough for him to complete his mission."

"How?" Xander asked again.

"He knew the currents, I bet it's why Swastika chose the route he took. He figured the boat would float to New York no matter what happened."

"So how do we stop it?" Jakita asked.

"When in doubt, blow it up," Xander said.

"Says the man who blew up his high school," Drums commented.

"Shield already tried that. It didn't seem to work," Jakita said.

"Well, let me give it a try," Xander smirked.

Suddenly, the chamber was fully lit again and the fight was back on. Xander saw how Swastika was bearing down on him. "I will defeat you all, the Master Race will prevail!"

Xander rolled away from him. "You can't really talk like that, do you live in a comic book or something?"

"Schweinhund!" the German yelled.

"See what I mean?" Xander took the chance to throw a punch.

"Don't play around, figure out how to blow this submarine up!" Snow shouted.

"If I hadn't been so rushed, I could have done a better job of that," American Shield said, as he blocked a punch from Swastika with his shield.

"How so?" Jakita asked, as one of her punches was blocked.

"I only got to use what was in my hands at the time. I left most of the explosives hidden."

"Where was that, no wait, show us how to get there," Snow said. "Jakita and I will keep the Kraut occupied. Xander, you and Drums go with Shield to get the rest of the explosives."

"Come on!" Xander shouted as he made his way up to the hatch leading out of the chamber.

"Where is it?" Xander asked as the three of them ran down a hallway, American Shield leading the way, punching a Nazi here and there.

"Store room aft, the resistance fighters who smuggled me onboard were the ones stocking the supplies for the crew. They hid the explosives for me among the weapons for the crew."

"Makes sense, who's going to notice some more bombs," Xander commented.

"Guys, if we're done with the mutual back slapping, how far to the store room?" Drums asked. "Because we got company."

Xander looked back and saw four German sailors running down corridor after them.

"I've got them," American Shield said as he turned around. He lifted up the shield and threw it down the corridor. Two of the Germans didn't move quick enough to avoid the shield, as it cleaved their heads from their bodies. The third sailor screamed as the shield embedded itself into his shoulder, putting him down for the count and out of the fight.

The fourth sailor froze in horror. He blinked, and then finally raised his sub machinegun. Before he could fire, American Shield was on him, pummeling him unconscious. He reached down to the third sailor and pulled the shield out.

"I need that, bub." He straightened up. "Come on, it's this way."

A few minutes later Xander, Drums and American Shield hurried back into the chamber, carrying the remaining explosives on their arms. Jakita and Snow were leaning against a hatch. Xander could see that a film of ice over the hatch.

"About time. What were you doing, playing shuffleboard?" Snow shouted as he pushed on the hatch, ice expanding out from his hands.

"The lido deck was a happening place," Xander replied. "Where's Nazi boy?"

"He stepped out of the room. You get the explosives?" Jakita asked as she hugged her arms to her body, shivering as she did so.

"Yeah. What now?"

Drums looked around. "The column, the information flowing on it is central to everything. It's what's causing the temporal shifts. Destroying the column should solve the problem."

"Big Boom?" Xander asked.

"You like that, kid, don't you?" Snow asked. "Blowing things up."

"Schools, submarines, they all blow up with enough explosives!" Xander shouted back.

"More explosions, less talking," Jakita said as the hatch the shook from a blow on the other side. "This guy is too good. As much as I enjoy a good workout, I want to wrap this up and go home."

Xander started pulling out the explosives and setting them around the column of green light. He started passing them out to the others, except for Snow who stood next to the hatch, touching it ever few moments as the ice cracked.

After a few minutes, Xander stood up and started taking his watch off. "Done!"

Snow came over. "Okay, let's get out of here and blow this tub. We can send the command destruction from our submarine."

Xander shook his head. "Uh, actually, we have a problem there."

"I hate it when I hear that, it always means trouble," Drums moaned.

Snow ignored him. "What's the problem?"

"We can't send the signal from our sub. The receiver was damaged during the fight. I'm going to have to set up a timer to set off the bombs."

"That leads to another problem, leaving the bombs unattended means their detonation is by no means assured," Jakita said. "Our friend from the Fatherland or his little friends can meddle."

"Someone has to stay," Snow said in a flat tone. The Planetary team members looked from one to another.

"I'll do it."

They looked at American Shield. "Don't look at me like that. From what all of you are saying, quite a bit of time had passed since I got on this rust bucket. It's a new world out there, and I don't want my world messing up your world." He turned towards the hatch, the ice on it cracking. "Besides, Swastika and I have a dance to finish."

"Okay, come on!" Snow shouted as he started up the ladder. Xander hesitated.

Shield looked back at Xander. "Go on! I have a visitor to welcome." He started walking to the hatch, where the pounding from the Nazi could be heard. "Go on! This is a solo gig!"

Xander turned and ran to the ladder. He nodded at Jakita. "Ladies first."

Jakita shook her head and reached and pushed Xander to the ladder. "And let you stare at my ass, no way. Get up there!" Xander scrambled up the ladder. Jakita followed a few seconds later.

"Like what you see?!" Xander shouted down. "You just wanted to stare at my ass."

Jakita jumped up and didn't directly answer Xander. "Come on, hurry or Snow might leave without us."

"What, are his soaps on?" Xander and Jakita hurried into the corridors. They came across two Nazi sailors, frozen in their tracks.

"You could say that," Jakita answered as they ran past the remains. The lights flickered again, and it was a corridor lit only by emergency lights. "This should make it easier. Don't have to fight mummies, frozen or otherwise."

The two of them quickly ran through the maze of the submarine's corridors. Eventually, they turned a corner and saw where the Planetary submarine had docked with the U-boat. The hatch from their submarine was hanging open.

Snow was climbing up the ladder that Drums had lowered. "Come on, you two!" he shouted.

Jakita and Xander got to the foot of the ladder and looked up. "Ladies first," Xander said again.

Jakita shook her head and grabbed Xander's shirt. "Sorry, I'm faster and stronger." She lifted Xander up forced him through the hatch. She scurried up after him, slamming the hatch when she got into the submarine. "Go!" she shouted.

"Hold on!" Drums yelled from the control room.

The submarine accelerated away as it detached itself from the U-boat. Xander followed Jatika as she hurried to the control room. As they got to the control room, the submarine shook violently, tossing them about.

After the submarine stopped shaking, Xander crawled to his feet. Snow was looking out the hatch. "American Shield came through."

Xander went and looked over his shoulder. He could see in the murky ocean the shattered pieces of the U-boat floating away from the submarine and each other.

Mission accomplished.

"Is this a normal day at the office?" Xander asked.

The group was aboard one of the private jets that Planetary had in order to fly their trouble shooting team around the world. The jet had taken off from Halifax and was en route to New York City. Jatika was sleeping in a seat in the front of the cabin, while Drums played with one of his electronic gizmos. Snow was smoking a cigarette in the back of the cabin, where Xander had wandered to.

"You should see the office Christmas party," Snow said as Xander sat down next to him. "You liked your first day?"

"Well, oddly enough, it wasn't the weirdest first day at a job I ever had, but it was up there."

Snow looked at Xander, raising an eyebrow. "You did good."

"Thanks." Xander hesitated a second before continuing. "I have a question."

"No, you can't wear Hawaiian shirts to work."

"You never said anything about a dress code, but that's not what I wanted to ask."

"What is it, then?" Snow took a drag off of his cigarette.

"Why me?"

"What?"

"Well, Jakita has the whole super strength thing, Drums does what he does with the Internet and electronics, and you have the Mister Freeze thing going. Me, well, I'm just a normal guy. So, why does the normal guy get added to this quartet?"

Snow was silent for a second. He then took another drag from his cigarette before answering. "Do you know what Napoleon asked when he got a new general?"

Xander shook his head. "No, unless he asked how tall the new general was."

"Bonaparte wasn't actually that short for back then. However, what he asked was, 'Is he lucky'?"

"Lucky? I'd think he would ask if the guy was any good at being a general!" Xander exclaimed.

"Oh, the man would already be good at being a general; he had to be, in order to get noticed by Napoleon. But oddly enough, being lucky is the difference between being a good general and a great general, and Bonaparte was smart enough to know it."

Snow leaned back in the seat. "You, Harris, are lucky. And that's the only answer you're getting from me, with regard to your question." He was silent for a few seconds before speaking again. "Apart from the fact that you are going to get a white suit, once we return to London."

-tbc-


End file.
